Over a month into the mission, there are still cheers at JPL when
first-time activities are completed successfully. Last night, the latest
successes included the first Chemin X-ray diffraction pattern (of an empty
sample cell), and the first MAHLI image with its dust cover open. Previous
images through MAHLI's dust cover window had much lower contrast, probably
because dust settled onto it during MSL's landing. So there was some
concern that the dust raised by the landing rockets had gotten under the
cover onto MAHLI's optics. The beautifully clear MAHLI image received
yesterday showed that any such dust contamination was insignificant, and
that the camera is ready to go. So the Sol 34 plan included many MAHLI
images of calibration and other targets on the rover, as part of a thorough
checkout of the arm pointing. As MAHLI/MARDI Payload Uplink Lead for the
first shift last night, I had a lot of MAHLI command sequences to keep
track of, but it wasn't very difficult because the arm checkout had already
been run on the MSL testbed (nearly identical rover in a lab at JPL) and
the sequences built and tested. The checkout includes a mosaic of MAHLI
images looking under the rover, to look for any signs of damage incurred
during landing. I left JPL when my shift was over at 5 AM, and got enough
sleep this morning that I think I have made the transition onto Mars time.